Nancy, Jerri, Ally, and Amanda in front of the Circle Mound gates. |
The Temple of Heaven is actually a collection of buildings and gardens spread out over several hundred acres of downtown Beijing. We started at the southern gate and walked through the Circle Mound, which consists of three concentric elevated circular tiers, each with nine concentric rings of marble tile. The circular ring sections represent heaven, and the outer wall of the mound area is a large square, representing earth. If you stand in the very center of the rings and speak very softly, your voice will sound louder than any other around you. I guess that might work on a day when there were only a few people around, but it was pretty crowded today and we had to wait our turn just to get a picture in the center.
Vault of Heaven |
After the Circle Mound we went north through several buildings where prayers could be raised to help the harvest. This is where the emperor would come each solstice to lead prayers for the people. This area has the Vault of Good Harvest and is within a high circular wall known as the “Echo Wall.” There are marble sections of walkway leading away from the Vault of Good Harvest. If you stand on the first marble section and clap your hands, you’ll hear the echo once. If you stand on the second section and clap your hands, you’ll hear the echo twice, and the third section three times. We tried it from the third section and could definitely hear two echoes, but the third was a little hard due to the large crowd of people in that part of the park.
Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest in background. |
The largest building in the complex, and the most well-known, is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. It’s huge…about 40 meters tall. This is one of the landmarks I’ve wanted to see almost since we started the adoption process twelve years ago. It’s the realization of a dream and the reality did not disappoint. The emotion I felt when we finally stepped through the last set of gates to the inner area where the Hall is located was quite powerful, both because of the historical significance of the place and what it represented to me personally.
Jerri's got game. |
Almost as interesting as the landmarks were the people who frequent the park. In addition to the souvenir hawkers were many people playing cards, dominos, and Chinese chess. One game of chess had a rather large gallery of onlookers, which Jerri joined for a few minutes to get an idea of what was going on. There were several groups of people dancing and one fairly large group of people singing. One guy got Jerri into a paddle-ball game (and she was pretty good at it). Then he offered to sell her a set of paddles and a ball…saw that one coming…didn’t bite. It was all very different from what I would expect to see at a public park in the States, mostly because of the large group activities and sense of community we felt while there.
Tea service (and lesson). |
Just outside the Temple of Heaven complex our guide, Nancy, took us for tea at a local shop. We were treated to a tea service where we sampled six different types of tea from various places in China. I am not a big tea drinker, but there were a couple of varieties I really liked. We did purchase tea leaves and a few trinkets. Ask the girls about the little figurine that indicates when water is hot enough for tea. I’ll post a picture after we get home and I can do it right…it’s funny.
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